She got out and held the door. She didn’t want him to leave but was afraid if she asked him to stay it would send the wrong message. But finding him was the reason she’d returned to Ardenwood. That, and hopes of seeing the dusk-to-dawn light again, which would be impossible now that Cliff was at the cabin.
“Would you mind waiting until I see if he has any rooms?”
“Ed always has rooms. But I can wait. I’ll pull over there.”
Michelle went in the office. The man smiled and pulled a clipboard and pen from under the counter. “Just your name. Don’t worry about the rest of that stuff. Cash or credit card?”
Michelle opened her purse and saw the gun. She was relieved she hadn’t left it on the table for Cliff to find. She tilted the bag away from the man and pulled her wallet out, sliding some cash across the counter.
He slid the money into a cash drawer. “I hear there’s a big snowstorm coming,” he said. “Almost May and they’re talking about snow. Can you believe it? If you get caught here, I’ll discount the room.”
“Thank you.”
“Here you go, ma’am.”
Michelle looked up at the clerk and took the remote from his hand. “What’s this for?”
“Television. Needed a new battery.” He handed her the room key attached to an old-fashioned green plastic diamond with the numeral 7 incised in white. “Ice machine is in that back breezeway down from your room. Let me know if you need anything.”
It felt strange not having a suitcase or two to throw on the bed and unpack. All her clothes were at the cabin.
Pink appeared in the doorway of her motel room, hands in pockets. “This going to work?”
“Yes, fine. Can you come in a second?”
“Just for a bit. Clarence’ll forget to lock the dang office when he leaves if I’m not there.”
Michelle closed the door and motioned for Pink to sit at the small round table.
“I feel I owe you some explanation,” she said.
“None of my business, ma’am. I’m just a real estate salesman with a funny name and a weight problem. Folks is dealt all kinds of hands, none of them easy.”
She wanted to leave it at that, but there wasn’t time.
“My husband’s up here to take me back to Atlanta,” Michelle said.
Pink nodded as if he understood, leaving his arms lashed over his belly. “But you have your own car, don’t you?”
“It’s my sister’s. She . . . lent it to me.” Michelle hated to keep lying, but she needed Pink to listen, and if he thought she was crazy, he might just leave. He nodded again, this time leaning forward, his elbows on the table as if waiting for a supper plate to be set between his thick wrists.
“I need to tell you the story and would like for you to listen until I finish, okay?” Michelle said.
He nodded again.
Michelle took a deep breath before she started.
“Last week, my husband and I drove up from Atlanta to spend some time at the cabin, your cabin, the one you built. We got there late and I was tired, so I went to bed. Cliff is restless and has a hard time getting to sleep and decided to go out on the deck for fresh air. I guess I dozed off, because a short while later I woke up and heard him rustling through the drawers in the kitchen. I asked him what he was doing. He said he was looking for a flashlight. Then he told me to get up, that he wanted to show me something.
“A few minutes later I’m standing on the deck in my nightgown looking down the dark mountainside. I could barely focus my eyes. He directed my attention to a light down through the tangle of trees and limbs. I shrugged and said so what. He became very agitated, saying that there wasn’t supposed to be light down there. Cliff was convinced there was a house below us, that the light was one of those driveway lights, you know . . . ?”
“One them dusk-to-dawn lights,” Pink said. “That would have been my mama’s place. You remember. Why did that bother him?”
Michelle had to think a moment before she spoke. “Um, it wasn’t over toward her place. It was more toward the south, I guess. In that direction.”
“There’s nobody lives below you in that direction,” Pink said. “That’s all my mama’s property almost to the highway.”
“Okay, well anyway, Cliff was really angry saying that the real estate agent who sold us the property had lied to him, that she had told him that there was nobody living within miles of the cabin, that it was very secluded—”
“Sherri Franklin,” Pink said.
“What?” Michelle said.
“Sherri Franklin,” Pink repeated. “She’d shave her head and dress up like one of them Hare Krishnas if she thought she could sell you prayer beads and a stick of incense.”
“Oh.”
“That’s who sold you the house. Sherri had the listing.”
Michelle couldn’t recall the woman’s name and didn’t care.
“Okay.” Michelle cleared her throat before she continued. “Well, Cliff was so upset, he got in our car and drove down there to check on it. I went back to bed. A while later he came back and stood out on the deck, staring down the mountain. I found my robe and went out. He looked like he’d seen a ghost. I asked him what was wrong, and he pointed down the hill. He said, ‘It’s not there.’ I asked him what wasn’t there? He told me he drove all over down there and saw nothing. He couldn’t find anything. ‘But there it is,’ he said, pointing at the light through the trees. I could see it too. We heard noises, like people talking and closing doors and such.”
“Your husband must be a bit persnickety,” Pink said, his brow squeezed to ridges.
“Yes, he can be intense at times. Anyway, Cliff decided to go down the mountainside toward the light—”
“On foot? In the dark? He a hunter or something?”
“No, not really.”
“Well, that’s insane. Folks not used to this area get lost in broad daylight. At night . . . well, hell . . .” Pink laughed a little, shaking his head.
“Anyway, I went back to bed, and the next morning when I woke, I saw Cliff wasn’t there. I thought maybe he went for a walk, but when he wasn’t back by noon, I called the police.”
“He got himself lost,” Pink said. “I’m telling you, not hard to do around here.”
“Sheriff Fisk showed up with his deputy—”
“Elmer? Elmer Bogan.”
“I believe so. Anyway, they searched for him, even had some men come out with dogs—”